Phonemic awareness is the insight that every spoken word can be conceived as a sequence of phonemes. Phonemes are the speech sounds that are represented by the letters of the alphabet.
Phonemic decoding is the ability to capture the meaning of unfamiliar words by translating groups of letters back into the sounds that they represent, link them to one’s verbal vocabulary, and access their meaning.
Together, phonemic awareness and phonemic decoding are key foundational skills for beginning readers.
Learn more about teaching children to read from the National Reading Panel.
